1.Ask a question.

Pupil's slid down to the inside corners of his eyes.

"Nn?" Komui stuck his tongue out and spluttered to remove the small piece of plastic pen cap from it. He looked up cautiously at Reever who was sitting across the small lab table, leaned over in his chair turned away from the surface. Reever did not look up. Good. Komui removed the end of the pen from his mouth guiltily and looked back down at the spreadsheet of teeny numbers. As soon as enough time had passed for him to feel safe from retribution,

"That's why I always tell you not to chew on pens," came sharply from across the workspace. "Next time it'll be the ink."

He hadn't even turned around.

Teachers and parents were clearly not the only ones with eyes in the backs of their heads. Komui slunk closer to the table top in response to this chastisement, glaring at the data and making a few marks before sighing softly and glancing up. He could not focus when the luster of scientific exploration was shining so alluringly before him. Reever scratched his head, elbow moving as he followed a sentence and calculation with his pen. Komui wanted to know what it felt like.

2. Collect data.

Now that an inquisition had been made in his mind, his scientific sense of duty spurred Komui into a highly focused mode. He flipped the spreadsheet over to it's blank back and poised his pen in the top right corner, swiftly dotting bullet points down the page before leaving the ballpoint tip poised above the first point. He seized the opportune yawn of his oblivious table mate to jot down estimated jaw lengths and angle measurements followed by dimensions for himself and then a list of adjectives starting with 'awkward' and ending with 'stubbly'. He raised the end of his pen to his mouth and then lowered it, conscious of the pitfalls of his habit and instead gnawed his lip, reviewing the list. He added the date, time, and location at the top. January 12, 2:32 AM, research lab. He set his pen down and bridged his slender fingers.

3. Form a hypothesis.

Komui squinted and read the list over multiple times, focusing intently. High eyebrows knitted and rose repeatedly as he pressed his lips together and then let the muscles relax, making a satisfactory "pop" sound that made Reever's shoulder twitch. Pop! Pop! Pop! Komui glanced up slowly as Reever turned toward the table glaring. He frowned importantly and hastily scribbled "Scale of 1-10, 8" beside the list as Reever sighed and turned back to his original sitting position.

4. Devise an experiment.

Komui glared and shut his eyes tightly, mentally shuffling and constructing possible simulations. The objective was simple enough but the process could become quite complex depending on the amount of subtlety involved. Across the table Reever let a long breath out and began to murmur the steps of some lengthy conversion calculation aloud. He was a mathematician. The most straightforward approach would be the most effective.

5. Execute the experiment.

Komui extended his legs to their full extent beneath the table, probing for the bar bracing the back legs of Reever's chair. Once his feet found their perch he pressed down hard, forcibly lowering the elevated chair legs and jerking Reever down and back towards the table. Komui was not the only one with a bad habit. This nasty awakening from the semi-sleep of computation was met with equal malignance on Reever's part.

"What the-" the spreadsheet and clipboard in Reever's lax grip fell soundlessly to the ground, cushioned by thick layers of data sheets on the research lab floor. He turned angrily to Komui but his face transformed when met with the steady and formal gaze that greeted him. "What…" droopy yet scrutinizing eyes scanned Komui, "why… you…" Reever squinted, supremely confused by the passive stance of his offender.

"Reever," Komui's arms were stretched across the table, holding his data sheet at arms length. "Will you kiss me?" Several unspoken responses were made through a series of expressions that passed over Reever's face. "For purely scientific purposes of course."

"Of course…" the District Leader rotated slowly as Komui rose and sedately walked around the table, seating himself in the second of the two chairs on Reever's side of the table, wandering aloud,

"Or perhaps, may I kiss you is a better phrasing, whichever you prefer."

"Uh…" Komui scooted closer, glancing up curiously at Reever's noise of uncertainty.

"Yes?"

"What scientific purpose are you furthering here exactly?" Reever was slightly rigid in his chair, regarding the self-situating Komui skeptically.

"None specifically, the general search for scientific knowledge I suppose."

"Well who am I to deter research…" somehow the request was becoming more rational in Reever's mind, by some strange alchemy becoming reasonable that his supervisor and senior desired a kiss from him. And any part of his mind that was not corrupt by 2:38 AM logic reasoned that Komui (and all his quirks) deserved tolerance and to be humored by someone (and he was the usual suspect). Komui glanced across at a clock on a computer monitor and, while waiting for the minute to switch, informed Reever of the experiment's procedure.

"Half a minute should suffice and I'd like to run a few trials if that's okay, three total, and we'll start riiight…" he scribbled down the time and set his pen atop his lab record, "now." Reever blinked, slightly taken aback at the abrupt commencing of the experiment. Komui smiled pleasantly before gently cupping Reever's face and pulling him in. Reflexively, Reever grasped Komui's sleeves as if to push him away but remembered his agreement to participate in the research and so let his hands linger between instinct and rationale. The research lab seemed very far away. "Hmm…" Komui pulled back marginally and scribbled briefly on his paper, looking back at the computer monitor again for the time. Reever breathed haltingly, feeling altogether severely confused and far from prepared when Komui set his pen down and pulled him in for trial 2. Through his growing panic, he was startled to realize the hand still on his face was stroking his cheek gently (and had been for who knew how long). The effect was very soothing and Reever relaxed slightly, letting his vice grip still on Komui's sleeves, loosen and, quite unexpectedly noting in his calmer state that Komui (as far as he could tell from his little experience) was an excellent kisser. Trial 2 ended with Komui again withdrawing and scrawling out his notes but Reever sitting placidly in wait for the final trial, no longer anxious. "One more…" Again the pen went down and again their lips touched softly then more forcefully then flirtatiously and nearly passionately before the kiss was broken and the tension was over. "Hmm…" Komui stood slightly, adjusting his glasses as he studied his data, preparing to return to his seat across the table. Reever leaned slightly to inconspicuously catch a glimpse of what data for an experiment like this could possibly look like. Komui tilted it suddenly so that any information was clear of the line of vision of any prying eyes and promptly shuffled around to his former seat. The normal mysterious and melodramatic Komui had most certainly returned in place of the tender and tentatively romantic one. Reever shrugged and returned to his calculation review.

6. Analyze data.

Komui's pen moved busily, forming a curlicue-bedecked bunny as he gazed unseeing at the far wall of the research lab. As results solidified in his head, the pen slowed and his focus returned to the paper. He paused and then wrote 'developed' and sketched a curve on a roughly drawn coordinate plane (x-axis being time and y-axis being the 1-10 scale). He frowned and rose from his chair. Reever watched his shuffle through an overflowing materials desk and looked away as he returned with a red pen.

7. Determine Conclusions.

Komui wrote a few words boldly in red ink across his page. As he returned the red pen, Reever gathered his finished materials and as he left, read the lab conclusion.

"Results inconclusive. Further experimentation necessary."